


A Twist and a Shout

by AntivanCrafts



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: M/M, this is irredeemable fluff and i take no responsibility for it whatsoever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:32:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7983550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntivanCrafts/pseuds/AntivanCrafts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carver is inspecting Vigil's Keep's recruits; Nathaniel is of the opinion that interruptions (and kisses) are called for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Twist and a Shout

The sounds of Vigil’s Keep’s courtyard at midday were near deafening, forcing Carver to shout to be heard. The mabari whose training he was overseeing today were… rambunctious, to say the least. The were the spring puppies, small still and wriggly, independent as any mabari, each having to constantly be brought back to task when their attention wandered. The kennelmaster and Carver were having just as much fun as the puppies, laughing often and loud.

  
The puppies had been brought out to the courtyard to acclimatize them to loud noises and crowds, and Carver’s own mabari, Sasha, was no different from her brothers and sisters. Excellently trained already, for her age, as they all were. Her muzzle followed his fingers as he lifted two of them up and she rose up off the ground on her back legs yo beg, as she’d been taught. “Good girl, Sasha,” Carver crooned, and held aloft a strip of dried beef skin, though he did not give it yo her until she ran through her entire repertoire of tricks for him.

  
“Torturing your dog again I see,” Nathaniel said as Carver made Sasha do her tricks again in the proper order, as she’d gotten excited and did all of her tricks before he told her to.

  
“Its not torture,” Carver said primly, choosing to ignore how a younger him would have vehemently argued the point, both in regards to Sasha and his own being denied things he wanted.

  
Nathaniel hummed, clestly disagreeing, and bent to kneel in front of Sasha. She had markings similar yo a blue tick hound, as her father had indeed been, and she threw her head back snd let out a wavering howl when Nate cupped his hands around his mouth and let loose one of his own, which in turn set off every other puppy, as well as the kennelmaster, a former ash warrior who took visible glee in exciting her hounds.

  
“You live to spite me,” Carver groaned, but he was laughing, as much as he tried to pasye on a stern expression when Nate rose to take Carver in his arms.

  
“Have I been neglecting my most important puppy,” Nathaniel murmured, eyes dancing, and Carver sniffed, but turned in the circle of his arms to press a kiss against his jaw.

  
“Perhaps,” he said, which meant nothing of the sort, but it was one more of their games, a dance, and Nathaniel performed the next step without missing a beat.  
“My deepest and most sincere apologies, puppy,” he said sgainst the bow of Carver’s lips. “How should I make it up to you? Should I…” He turned his hands between them to take Carver’s hand in his own, tucking his other against Carver’s hip, crinkling his eyes at Carver when his lover blushed and gaped.

  
“What do you take me for?” Carver stuttered, feeling his face tingle and grow warm. “An Orlesian fop? I don’t know dances like this.” Or any dances at all, put to tell. Just the one, and it wasn’t exactly suited to the situation.

  
“Then I think it is high time you learned how to be pampered,” Nathaniel said easily. “Your fop knows, and I am more than certain that you can pick it up easily enough. Besides, that sounds to me like spreading dissent about the warden commander.”

  
Carver’s mouth dropprd open on a startled laugh. “Blackmail now?” He chuckled, but relaxed, turning his feet as Nathaniel did to keep pace, though he honestly had no idea what he was doing. It was… nice, though, he had to admit, here against Nathaniel’s chest so he could feel laughter rumble through where they were pressed together, moving almost as one, or close enough to it that he could forget what stresses of the day that hadn’t been wiped clean by the puppies.

  
“I am not so proud that I will not reduce myself to using whatever methods I must to make sure you take care of yourself,” Nathaniel said in what Carver was quite sure Nathaniel thought was a reasonable time, but he was betrayed by the smirk curling the edges of his mouth.

  
“And you think dancing is self care, I see. News to me.”

  
“That,” Nathaniel said as he stretched Carver out to the edge of his arm and spun him in back against his chest do that Carver ended up with his back against Nathaniel’s chest, his voice soft, more an impression of words against his skin than true sound, “is because you have not truly lived. But not to worry, I am here to induct you in my foppish ways.”

  
Carver snorted, but found it strangely hard to find breath again to replace what had been lost, staring up at Nathaniel with wide eyes and a shake to his mouth that Nathaniel wasted no time in capturing with his own.

  
“I think,” Nathaniel said when they at last had to part for air, sounding infuriatingly normal and not at all as if he was panting, as Carver was, “that today’s lesson is a success.” It was only then, when he caught the twinkle in Nathaniel’s eye and the top of his head that Carver remembered they had an audience, and looked up to stutter out an explanation only to find the courtyard, trainees, workmen, puppies, and wardens, all standing enraptured. 

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Carver asked gruffly, barely resisting the urge to cover his face as Bethany had used to do when she was flustered, though he did press his face against Nathaniel’s chest with a groan when they started to clap. “I am going to kill you,” Carver told him, lifting his head and thumping it back down.

  
“Of course, puppy,” Nathsniel said, kissing the top of his head as Sasha started to prance around them, yipping.

  
“Slowly.”

  
“I would be disappointed if you did not.”


End file.
